In my early 1920s I was caught at a party in a bar on the roof in a round of bastard with a friend of a friend. I clambered around for a conversation, I asked her where she came from. “Folkestone,” she said. If you don’t know, it is a coastal town in knowing, in the southeast of England.
Without hesitation I answered: “Folkestone Invicta”-the name of the local Non-League club of the city, which is currently playing in the seventh level of English football. To this day, I have never forgotten the look on her face: one of almost total boredom and indifference, but pity for a traces.
But to paraphrase the ‘Brand Playbook’ of a certain Premier League club: in a world full of Uniteds, Citys and Rovers there is only one Invicta – Folkestone Invicta.
And in 1936, when the founders of the club had thought that ‘Invicta’ was unique enough to be the name of the club in itself – I could not have avoided the ‘folkestone’ part – I could not only have avoided the awkwardness of that moment , but also decades later, but also founders would have been almost a century before their time.
When Athletics Unveiled on Friday, Tottenham no longer wants you to call them Tottenham. It is simply ‘traces’, thanks. And that is not the only bit of preference nomenclature.
“If you refer to the team or brand, use ‘Tottenham Hotspur’, ‘Tottenham Hotspur Football Club’ or ‘THFC’,” the club wrote that this month sent to Premier League broadcasters. “Never refer to our club as ‘Tottenham’, ‘Tottenham Hotspur FC’ or ‘Th’.” Never. Or otherwise.
It raises many questions, not least, what is the material difference between the terms ‘Tottenham Hotspur Football Club’ and ‘Tottenham Hotspur FC’? Don’t know. But I will use the forbidden versions for the rest of this column in the hope of providing someone at Tottenham Hotspur FC to tell me.
At least there is a reason for the preference of ‘traces’. Tottenham claims that Tottenham is the name of the area, not the name of the club, and this has been their policy for years. Trawl due to the results of search engines and you will do well to find a single use of ‘Tottenham’ without ‘Hotspur’ that is linked to the club’s website.
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
Tottenham has been consistently mentioned ‘Spurs’ in Fixture reports on the official website of the Premier League for some time. Go back through the official social media feeds of the competition and practically the only mentions of the word ‘Tottenham’ are references to the ‘Tottenham Hotspur Stadium’.
In a sense, the club only goes back to its roots. When a group of schoolboy cricketers founded the club in 1882, their name choice was ‘Hotspur FC’. The ‘Tottenham’ was only added two years later because, as it is possible Apocryphet, they started to receive the function of another club called Hotspur.
It is not as if the club actually changed its name and has also completely eradicated a geographical marker. Another in North Londs was the precedent for this in 1913 after moving from Woolwich. So does that Diktat make this thickness explainer?
In response to Friday’s news, some Tottenham fans rightly said that with the side of Ange Postecoglou in the bottom half of the table, after they have stripped out of both domestic cups this month, she and the club itself have bigger things around you worry about.
Others have suggested that it is simply related to copyright, because the term ‘traces’ would be easier to trademark than the name of the surrounding area. Except that Tottenham all mentions the word ‘Tottenham’ among their registered trademarks.
And even if they didn’t do that, what would that have to do with how the club is referred to the Vidiprinter of Soccer Saturay?
But it is difficult not to agree with another part of the reaction, from the Tottenham fans and supporters of other clubs who see this as a disappointing sign of where football is currently; Another small brick that was paved in a road that the sport as a whole has already traveled far down.
But are Tottenham Hotspur fans allowed? (Jacques Feeney/Mi News/Nurphoto via Getty Images)
Many supporters of Manchester United still regret the removal of the words ‘football club’ from the Crest in 1998 – at the time controversial, but the same words or the initials ‘FC’ are now regularly distributed with little comment.
Six years ago, Liverpool did not succeed in the name of the city in the trademark for merchandising -purposes. Earlier this season, Chelsea was more successful and celebrated their 120 -year anniversary with a new, alternative club comb with their lion, warning above the letters ‘LDN’.
Likewise, West Ham United added the word ‘London’ to their renewed crest in 2016, although that at least set a voice among supporters.
And things like this is far from a Premier League phenomenon. The rebranding of Paris Saint-Germain accentuated the word ‘Paris’ on their logo, not so much the ‘Saint-Germain’, and UEFA refers uniform to the club as ‘Paris’ instead of ‘PSG’.
At the surface level, the preference of Tottenham ‘Spurs’ from some of those examples differs. Instead of better associating themselves with a larger metropolitan environment, they went the other way: drawing a line between ‘traces’ the team and ‘Tottenham’ the area in its justifications.
But there is a common thread between such decisions. All are fundamental attempts to make the identity of a club something that it is easier to swallow and digested. In other words, something that can be consumed, especially on the global market.
Too often that is at the expense of what a club is: its history, his culture, his place. Nowadays there is often enough to be a cliché, but it is still ignored enough to repeat: football clubs are primarily representations of their communities, the world of the world.
The vast majority of clubs acknowledges that they do in the deserving work within those communities, but quickly forget that responsibility in their marketing departments when it is time to think about what will better sell on a plastic water bottle.
Tottenham is by no means alone. It often feels like clubs that want to get ahead in the current landscape of football, have to give priorities where they go where they come from. Referring to the club as ‘traces’ instead of ‘Tottenham’ is a small but not insignificant shift. And enough to remind me that these days I might have to do to Folkestone Invicta.
(Top photo: Jacques Feeney/Mi News/Nurphoto via Getty Images)